A uranium processing facility with an estimated cost of $1.4-$3.5 billion is slated to be built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, according to a Dept. of Energy (DoE) Request for Proposals [Download y12nukecontract.doc (259.0K)] that The Peacock Report has obtained. DoE contractor Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) Technical Services Y-12, LLC, currently is assessing the availability of subcontractors to assist in this nuclear design and construction endeavor.
The U.S. government may offer financial backing to the private sector to build new oil refineries and to modernize existing petroleum-production facilities -- in China.
According to a planning document that The Peacock Report has obtained, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) -- a White House agency based in Arlington, Va. -- intends to send private consultants to China to assess the status of that nation's refinery capabilties. This USTDA "definitional mission" will produce recommendations on whether U.S. taxpayers should financially assist -- and ultimately modernize -- the Chinese oil industry.
The agency is pursuing this project despite "significant expansion activities" upon which China's largest refinery operators, PetroChina and Sinopec, already have embarked. According to the document, which is dated Jan. 2, these ongoing efforts:
have mainly allowed both companies to keep up with existing demand [in China] with little room for anticpated demand increases. Industry analysts estimate that China will need to construct at least twenty large refineries capable of handling high-sulfur crude over the next seven years in order to meet anticipated demand, an investment expected to approach $30 billion.
A corollary aim of the project purportedly is to "facilitate China's transition to higher vehicle emissions standards," the document says. As a matter of policy the agency claims that it is tasked with the dual mission of increasing U.S. exports while "contributing to the improvement and security of the physical, financial and social infratsucture of the developing world."
It should be noted that The Peacock Report previously uncovered a separate USTDA initiative to pay for a feasibility study that likewise would benefit the Chinese petroleum industry (TPR, May 16, 2006); however, in that case the agency was helping to subsidize a project to facilitate the construction of the world's largest petrochemical in the world -- a facility jointly owned by the Saudi Arabian royal family and Dalian Shide Group, a Chinese conglomerate with more than $2 billion in annual revenues.
If interested in obtaining a copy of the above-mentioned planning document, send an e-mail request to The Peacock Report via stevepeacock@yahoo.com.
In addition to depleted uranium shells and civil war, the Iraqi people can add one other legacy that the U.S. government ultimately will leave behind: more than a billion plastic bottles. According to a procurement document that The Peacock Report has located, the U.S. Army is coordinating the delivery of 348,000,000 to 492,000,000 liters of bottled water for distribution in 2008 within the Iraqi "theater of operations," where the Multinational Forces-Iraq will consume the products via half- and one-liter plastic containers, the document says.
The eventual deployment of nuclear reactors on the Moon blasted a baby step closer to reality today, with NASA embarking upon the creation of a new unit tasked with bringing such a nuclear capability to fruition. The Technology Demonstration Unit (TDU) for Fission Surface Power (FSP) on Nov. 14 began searching for potential contractors capable of helping the new entity to initially develop and test a "simulated nucelar heat source," according to a presolicitation notice that The Peacock Report (TPR) located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database. The TDU is "planned as a 5 or 6-year activity with concept definition and risk reduction that could lead to the start of a potential flight development program in the future," the document says:
FSP systems provide a potential option to support future human exploration missions on the Moon and Mars. FSP is a current technology project under the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) sponsored by the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.
TPR broke the story early last year that the Bush Administration envisions building nuclear facilities and robotic spacecraft-manufacturing plants on the Moon as a critical step in eventually sending humans to Mars (see TPR, 03/23/2006; New Details of U.S. Moon-Base Project Reveal Nuclear Intentions).
The government of Pakistan and U.S.-based energy consulting companies last month became the dual beneficiaries of more corporate welfare hand-outs that the federal government is providing to Karachi. Habibulah Mines Ltd., a "sister company" of the Pakistani Private Power & Infrastructure Board, is slated to receive an $810,000 grant from the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) for a power-generation feasibility study. A U.S. firm will be selected to conduct the study "in anticipation of ramping up" Habibulah's coal reserves designated for a new power generation project, according to procurement document that The Peacock Report located.
Separately, USTDA is awarding a $263,000 grant to the government of Pakistan toward a review of the nation's regulatory and legal structure governing renewable energy. According to a document dated Sept. 7, Pakistan's National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NERPA) will use the funds to pay for "technical assistance" that will help it "utilize indigenous renewable energy sources such as water, wind, municipal solid waste, and others, in order to provide savings over more costly power generation that is based on imported gas, coal and fuel oil."
A third grant that USTDA awarded to Pakistan that same day will supply $325,000 toward a feasibility study for the construction of a "waste-to-energy" (WTE) plant in Karachi, home to 14 million Pakistani citizens. Karachi, the document says:
[G]enerates about 7,500 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day. This MSW is presently handled by several private contractors and is dumped at multiple landfill sites in and around the city. The city's population continues to expand rapidly, and has resulted in an urgent need to address the environmental problems associated with air and water pollution through proper MSW management and disposal, as well as increased demand for electric power.
USTDA claims that the proposed waste-burning facility would simultaneously "help address the power needs and the environmental concerns of Karachi, while at the same time generating a source of income for the city."
"Environmental surveillance" is the next area of research & development that the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) is targeting as it broadens its portfolio of preventative capabilities. According to a planning document dated July 23, DHS intends to award a sole-source contract for this endeavor to The National Academies, which will undertake a year-long effort to develop a report outlining a potential:
R&D strategy for development of a surveillance and detection system for novel, emerging, and engineered biological threat agents. The report will inform the Chemical and Biological Research and Development's (CBR&D) program plan for the development of such surveillance and detection systems to allow first responders and state, local, and federal officials to accurately identify and effectively manage bioterrorism attacks against citizens of the United States.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is helping to finance a "responsible mining" initiative in Africa, where it purportedly seeks to improve relations between multinational mining companies and local communities in Ghana where the companies conduct gold-extraction operations. USAID intends to award a sole-source contract to Research Triangle Institute (RTI), a North Carolina-based firm, to consult the Ghana Responsible Mining Alliance while providing "technical guidance" to villages in Ghana's Asutifi and Wassa West districts.
According to a Special Notice that The Peacock Report located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, USAID/Ghana last year created this "global development alliance" with international mining behemoths GoldFields and Newmont. GoldFields, a South African company, describes itself as "one of the world's largest unhedged pure gold producers." It claims to have an "annual gold production of approximately 4.1 million ounces" and has "ore reserves of 65 million ounces and mineral resources of 179 million ounces." Colorado-based Newmont reported gold reserves of 93.9 million ounces as of year-end 2006.
USAID selected RTI for this noncompetitive contract because of its previous experience in Ghana with the agency, with industry, and with the people of Ghana. RTI from 1994-1996, for instance, participated in USAID's Government Accountability Improves Trust (GAIT II) initiative, in which it consulted local governments in the two districts on economic growth issues.
RTI under the new contract will manage day-to-day Alliance operations. According to the Special Notice, which is dated July 10, the firm also will:
Lead efforts to engage local government, civil society and other critical stakeholders to ensure broad buy-in to Alliance activities [emphasis added]. This would include helping to engage and seek avenues for resolution of issues that would come up as the Alliance moves forward.
RTI will help accomplish these tasks via:
Development and technical assistance to support implementation of an Alliance communication strategy for internal and external communication, considering at minimum news media relations, print publications, use of the web.
Additionally, USAID expects the contractor to identify additional "opportunities for technical collaboration" as well as pursue potential joint efforts with entities such as the World Bank. RTI's initial contract for this endeavor is valued at $450,000.
U.S. military forces are looking to outsource the incineration of hazardous materials for which they need to dispose in Iraq. The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) claims that contractors selected for these duties must comply with relevant "local and host nation environmental laws and regulations," according to a procurement document that The Peacock Report recently located during a routine government-database search. Private firms chosen for these tasks must likewise comply with the Overseas Environmental Baseline Guidance Document (OEBGD), a 217-page policy document that the Dept. of Defense revised and released last month.
Performance of duties required under the contract will include the handling and burning of:
Class 3 Flammable Liquids, and Class 9 Miscellaneous Hazardous Materials/Products; Substances. At this time very limited in-country recycling and no disposal facilities are operational and approved by the U.S. Government. Offerors are directed to first consider submitting offers that implement approved mobile incineration equipment/processes in country.
DLA anticipates awarding an 18-month contract, with two 18-month options. The estimated value of the award is unknown.
A former uranium-processing facility in southwestern Ohio is gearing up for the shipment of nuclear waste to destinations across the nation, with one known site being Andrews County, Texas.
The Fernald Closure Project, a multi-billion-dollar endeavor involving the environmental remediation of a tainted Dept. of Energy (DoE) site, extends until Oct. 31, 2009, previous contracts that DoE awarded to Fluor Corp. and later extended to Waste Control Specialists, LLC, (WCS) of Andrews, Texas.
DoE intends to award a sole-source contract extension to WCS for the "interim storage" of byproducts that the Fernald facilty produced during the Cold War. This award also has options to "permanently dispose" waste from Fernald Silos 1 and 2 as well as to prepare and load "waste containers for transport," according to a DoE planning document that The Peacock Report has located.
Family owned U.S. farms continue to face seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the face of globalization -- so the federal government is stepping in to help farmers... in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
In order to accomplish this task, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has boosted the value of an existing contract previously awarded to Chemonics International, which will now "expand legal and consulting services to farmers and rural communities in Kyrgyzstan," according to a procurement document that Exhortations to the Oblivious recently located. USAID's exercising of this $634,348 option brings the value of the Chemonics contract to $6.5 million.
And an oink-oink here, and an oink-oink there. Here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink-oink.
Steve Peacock: HOTEL DICK: HARLOTS, STARLETS, THIEVES & SLEAZE
A rare glimpse into the notorious Helmsley Palace, New York City's former playground of the wealthy and powerful. A memoir. (*****)
Ron Paul: The Revolution: A Manifesto
Written by one of the few members of Congress whose legislative record backs up his belief in smaller government, personal responsibility, and constitutional liberty.
